- A special Pontiac Engineered car
- Certain options for performance
- Test cars rigorously inspected
The rugged 389 V8 powerplant
“A device for shrinking time and distance” is how the opening line read in the eight-page Pontiac GTO advertisement inserts, which were published in early 1964 car enthusiast magazines. The ad copy was very direct in its message about the new Pontiac GTO option:
To be perfectly honest, the GTO is not everyone’s cup of tea. Designed to be a piece of performance machinery, its purpose in life is to permit you to make the most of your driving skill. Its suspension is firm, tuned more for to the open road than to wafting gently over bumpy city streets. Its dual exhausts won’t win any prizes for whispering. And unless you order it with our lazy 3.08 low-ratio rear axle, its gas economy won’t be anything to write home about.
The chassis had stiffer suspension with specially valved shock absorbers; special 14 x 6-inch wheels, premium red-stripe low profile nylon-cord rubber, and manual shift cars got a 10.4-inch Belleville clutch. In reality, the 1964 GTO was a Le Mans with a special option package at $295 extra, at first, only pillared coupes or convertibles, the hardtop came later in the model year.
DeLorean had a bet that the new GTO would sell over 5000 examples when released, and he must have been shocked when 32,450 GTOs rolled out the door. The car was an overwhelming success, however, it took some creative thinking to get it to market.
They did find a way, and it was to offer the GTO as an option “package,” not a new model per se. This way, it could get around the “Engineering Policy Committee” which normally would approve, or not approve, new models for production.
The operative word was “model,” as in actuality this was not a new model but rather an option. A loophole in the system, and a great way to sneak it through! Another challenge was the GM internal policy that stated no car could be built by the company that had less than 10 pounds of vehicle weight per cubic-inch displacement of the engine. The 3400-lb curb weight of a stripped 389-cube GTO Coupe would not have passed that test either.
The rugged 389 V8 powerplant
This new GTO came with the same rugged 389-cid V8 powerplant as used on the larger-sized Pontiacs, but to give it even more potency, the cylinder heads were from the 421 H.O.. The standard version came equipped with a single four-barrel Carter carburetor, with power rated at 325 hp at 4800 rpm.
The optional “3 Deuce” engine used three Rochester two-barrels and was listed as having 348 hp at 4900 rpm.
Both versions incorporated the use of 10.75-to-1 compression ratio pistons, a special camshaft and valve lifters, and 18-inch seven-blade cut-off clutch cooling fan and dual exhausts. Factory torque was listed at 428 lb-ft for both versions, the single carburetor base coming in at 3200-rpm peak torque, and the tri-power reaching peak torque at 3600 rpm.
This gave the entire Pontiac Division a bold, new identity as “the hot line” cars for young Americans. The car slipped past the GM 14th-floor upper brass, and it changed automotive history forever.
A rather daring media score when approached to Car and Driver Magazine for a “head-to-head” type of road test, where the new Pontiac GTO, 348-hp version, would go up against a Ferrari of the same name. Some “fine-tuning” in the way of larger jets, progressive throttle linkage, re-curved distributor, blocked-off heat risers, thinner head gaskets plus fiber-insert nuts for the rocker arms, allowing for improved valve train performance.
Came factory equipped
The “Pure Oil Performance Trials” event took place at Daytona; only this time around testing was done under the watchful eye of NASCAR officials. It had to be on the “up and up” and no hanky-panky with engine swaps or special dealer-tuning tricks.
This Cameo Ivory-hued GTO was assembled on November 12, 1963, and it was a special Pontiac Engineering car built specifically for the Performance Trials. This car came factory equipped with and without certain options to best perform in the tests, and while the car was most certainly balanced, blueprinted, and generally “gone over,” there were not obvious deviations from “stock” specifications.
Details Inside and Out
The car was taken down all the way and done right. Attention to detail is the key to this car, and the finished product is a reflection of the fine work done on the restoration.
The simulated engine-turned-dash surround treatment was part of the GTO package.
Pontiac Tempest LeMans was the starting point for the optional GTO package, based on the 115-inch wheelbase A-Body platform. 389-cube V8, stiffer suspension with heavy-duty f/r coil springs, 0.938-inch diameter stabilizer bar, red-stripe tires and 14 x 6” JK wheels, unique hood, blacked-out grille and GTO markings were among the standard features. GTO nomenclature was soon transferred to street slang: GOAT!
